The Apple iPad just came out which I imagine will be followed by a bevy of tablet clones all with their own bells and whistles. My educational interest in these devices pertains to what they can offer our kids differently than what we already have. We have laptops, netbooks and the iPod Touch. What does a larger device with a touch interface allow kids to do that they could not manage otherwise.
Case in point: Below is my two year old son. He's playing a memory game and having a great time doing it. Now, card memory games have been around forever, no big deal. But he would never have the manual dexterity (or patience) to play a 20 card memory game. Yet, he does have the ability, as seen with my iPod Touch (and as much a surprise to me as anyone.)
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ReplyDeleteKern,
ReplyDeleteI could see early literacy skills could develop a new dimension of multimodal learning: touch. I could see children reading "Hop on Pop" that interacts with them much like starfall.com accomplishes but without the mouse. Could it be done on an iPod Touch? Yes, but the screen real estate has some limitations to what can be accomplished on the page.
The screen size certainly makes a difference and I haven't seen young kids playing with an iPad (yet ;) but when I played with one, it seemed as sturdy as an iTouch and I imagine wouldn't take long for kids to get comfortable with. I'm looking forward to the cheaper clones and to see what comes of all this.
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